Women's Soccer

Women’s Soccer Ready to Defend Their NCAC Title

Sep 02, 2016

The DePauw women's soccer team opens their season this weekend with two games at Centre College – one on Saturday against Piedmont and another Sunday against John Carroll.

Head coach Megan McCormick will look to keep an upward trend in the team's performance entering her third year. She went 5-8-2 overall in her first season before ending 2015 with a 12-7-2 record and a 7-1 conference record with both NCAC regular season and tournament championships. With the automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament, the Tigers moved on to the second round after tying Wis.-Oshkosh in round one and advancing via penalty kicks.

The good news is a number of key players will return from last year.

Goalkeeper Riley Riordan is one. Now a senior, she started all 21 games last year and her 90 saves gave her a .769 save percentage and a 1.27 goals against average.

Another senior, Elizabeth Seewer, is the team's returning points (16) and goals (7) leader. Junior Bridget Brendza returns as well and fell right behind Seewer with 15 points, four goals and a team-high seven assists. Both were All-NCAC honorees for their play last year.

Kathryn Ruark will look to capitalize on her strong sophomore campaign after scoring five goals and making one assist. Seniors Jen Dimos and Kelsey Cobbs will look to provide leadership in the backfield and midfield, respectively.

Sophomores Gail Enright, Katie Webb, Ali Grimm and Bekah Crone all saw valuable playing time as freshmen and should see more this fall. Junior Maddie Smith will also be a valuable defender after appearing in 19 games and making 17 starts last season.

However, there are holes to fill with the departures of Stephanie Martin, Megann Lear, Alyson Marzonie, Caroline Zadina and Meredith Schoefeld. Schoenfeld was a First Team All-Region selection last year for her play in the backfield. She, Marzonie, Zadina and Lear all earned All-NCAC honors.

The Tigers first home game is Sept. 10 against Rose-Hulman. They start NCAC play Sept. 24 at Oberlin.